


TANGLED UP

by ayobaby



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: & alfred as the heterosexual supporting cast, HAHA GAY, Hetalia, HongIce, M/M, dennor ;), sufin!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-19
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2020-12-24 01:09:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21090881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ayobaby/pseuds/ayobaby
Summary: his gaze was cold and sharp. diamond eyes cut right through his soul. ‘matthias.’ he whispered. ‘i gave you everything.’ came the hollow response. those eyes were so unlike matthias that lukas almost wanted to eat his own heart out. almost. instead, he offered the dane a shrug and a small, ingenuine smile. ‘with all the money in the world, you could never buy this boy quite enough. it will be tough.’ and with a cool kiss on the cheek, he left. matthias stood there and watched him go. maybe if they both plucked the courage from the bottom of their hearts, they would have pulled back and held hands and shared a burning kiss but they chose to ignore a happy future. it didn’t deserve them. it never would.





	1. 00 — I TOOK THE PERFECT AVENUE . . .

**Author's Note:**

> hi hi! this my first fic on here, as u can see i'm a big sucker for the lowercase aesthetic, don’t worry i know my capital letters & all fr. i also rly love ,,, denmark & norway nd the song ‘tangled up’ therefore this was born. i hope u enjoy reading<3

“AW, COME ON!” a loud voice boomed throughout the bustling street. “emil, bro, you’ve gotta be kidding me!” alfred jones was one of the loudest students in school and you could hear him anywhere. girls toilets? crystal clear. the rooftop? totally. and if he's right next to you? your ear's funeral is scheduled for next tuesday. emil rubbed his sore ear and ferociously glared at alfred — except it was a light scowl because emil is a pretty boy with a soft face which can’t express the inconvenience he feels 24/7. “i am not kidding you,” he began with his sharp icelandic accent. “we do not have the mcdonalds near the school and we are certainly not having the ugly place being built for you!” his voice cracked into slight broken english due to frustration.

“but emil! mcdonalds is  life .” alfred's voice dropped to a whisper and nearly shocked the younger boy. who knew alfred could whisper? the icelandic boy opened his mouth once more, fully prepared to berate the american when a deep, low voice cut into the conversation. “there's a mcdonalds down the road in the new ikea store.” the newcomer ignored emil's look of mortification at the blatant lie. “thanks, dude bro!” alfred cheered and took off, unaware that he had been duped. “berwald!” he hissed. the man in question only shrugged. “he was bothering you.” the thick swedish accent grumbled. “i can fight my own battles. lukas set you up to this, didn’t he? damn him!” he didn’t even wait for a response and stomped off, determined to find his older brother. berwald watched him go with a blank expression and only turned when a bright voice yelled out to him.

meanwhile, emil charged through the large academy halls of their prestigious school with the sole intent of finding his quiet older brother, who was very meddlesome when he wanted to be - which was all the time. “fight battles - my shit! - what a pain.” furious mutters greeted those who happened to bypass him. “I DON'T NEED A BODYGUARD!” he yelled into lukas' calculus class. students sighed and began to pack their things away, already used to the weekly struggles of the two nordic brothers. “you’re referring to our friend as a bodyguard? he would be hurt.” came the calm reply. “i don’t need somebody to fight my battles for me, i was doing just fine!” he seethed. violet eyes widened by a fraction before a slight patronising smirk graced his brother's face. “of course.” tone heavy with sarcasm, lukas spared the younger one last glance and made his way out of the classroom to greet a certain swede and buy him coffee for a job well done. 

berwald was currently tackling his hyperactive elder brother, matthias. lukas dramatically slowed to a stop at the sight of the blond men, as different as could be. stoic, strong and silent versus puppy? the energetic dane with the gravity defying hair waved him over excitedly. “HI HI, MY NAME IS MATTHIAS. YOU'RE PRETTY! WHAT'S YOUR NAME, BABE?” matthias boomed. lukas sighed silently and shook his head, answering abruptly “i'm lukas, you’re fucking weird and i need a caramel macchiato if i'm going to survive today.” berwald grunted sympathetically. “thanks,” he sighed in acknowledgment. matthias shook his head back and forth - and was that a pout? - feeling out of place between the two. “HEY GUYS, WE SHOULD GO OUT FOR A BEER, YEAH?” he screamed, eyes crinkled. the norwegian wrinkled his nose and shook his head to decline. “i'm alright, i don't drink.” and matthias wanted nothing more than to snicker ‘prude.’ from the corner of his mouth but he felt that wasn’t wise.

the tie around his neck choked him as his overactive mind conjured up several scenarios, all ending in lukas smiling at him seductively and slitting his throat. “LUKAS, PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!” he wailed aloud. lukas favoured him with a strange look and another shake of the head before he walked away, presumably to find some coffee. “you have his number?” matthias asked absentmindedly, watching the norwegian boy go. berwald grumbled something unintelligible from beside him. the swede had the nastiest feeling this was the start of something he did not want to be a part of. the duo eventually made their way to matthias' car, the owner chattering excitedly, his thoughts only revolving around one person : the pretty norwegian boy.


	2. 01 — THIS IS TOO MUCH!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> how yall write so good,,, im jealous  
i promise it’ll end up hongice even if it doesn’t seem tht way hehe

only a day had passed since lukas had encountered the strange dane who was somehow related to berwald. it seemed amusing; they were so unlike each other, after all. if it weren’t for their similar eyes and the slight curve of their lips, he would have never been able to associate them as brothers. at least emil looked related to him, excusing the different colouring. they had the same nose and the same delicate features and even the same resting bitch faces ( though the icelandic boy was more on the pouty side... not that lukas would ever tell him that ). ah, emil. his darling little brother had become a bit more edgy lately and lukas severely suspected it was to do with his massive crush on—

“baby! how you doing?” a voice intruded his thoughts. gravity-defying hair came into view and lukas expertly withheld a groan as the bright baby blue eyes of matthias twinkled cheerfully. it was a little disturbing, honestly. he looked like a danish, clean-faced, youthful albus dumbledore. a snicker almost escaped the norwegian as he thought of how mortified arthur would be to hear of that comparison. “ah, yes, hello, magnus? that's your name, right?” of course it wasn’t but he did not want the blond beginning of a nuisance to swoon over lukas remembering his name.

matthias sniffed and lukas swore there were mushrooms growing out of his hair. “you don’t remember my name?” he asked sulkily. “sorry, no. just really bad with names, they don’t stick in my head until after a while.” at that, the dane beamed. “that's alright bae! i'll spend so much time with you that you won’t even be able to forget my face, let alone my name!” that made absolutely no sense to lukas considering he was able to pinpoint his face as a familiar one but he let it slide and merely nodded along, humouring him. “so, which class you got? let me take you there, sugar!” matthias chirped, abruptly returning to good spirits.

‘you don’t even go here? why are you even here?’ he internally grumbled. the unlikely pair were interrupted by the cheerful arrival of everybody's favourite american. “luke! matt-eehhhhhh!!” alfred greeted brightly, his voice uncharacteristically deepening as he squished matthias into a one arm hug. ‘i would kill for some peace and quiet. peace and quiet. peace and quiet. peace and quiet.’ as lukas began desperately chanting in his mind, the energetic pair of friends took their sweet time catching up and screeching at one another. “say, you see anyone you like here?” alfred's voice dropped ( though it wasn’t necessary at all — nobody was listening in ). the dane stole a careful glance at lukas with his glazed crystal eyes and smooth skin and hastily stuck a thumb in his direction.

alfred followed his thumb carefully and almost shrieked. “OH MY GOD, DUDE DOES HE KNOW THOOOOOOOUGH?!” this certainly caught lukas' attention as he snapped out of his stupor. “who knows what?” the norwegian questioned. he couldn’t care less but if it would get the american to shut up then he wouldn’t mind entertaining some gossip. matthias intervened hastily, with a suspiciously high pitched “nobody knows anything!” and the snatching of the square spectacles that fit right at home on the bespectacled boy's face. this ensued an ( jokingly ) angry chase and lukas could not help but wonder if matthias was trying to hide something of mild importance. he could not care less however and was relieved to see the two loud men on their way. finally. peace and quiet.

on the other side of the school campus, a certain emil steilsson was complaining to his best friend about his ragtag family. “—and lukas told me to ‘get on with it!’ and later had the nerve to jest i had followed family tradition!” leon kirkland-wang surveyed him lazily before shrugging. “he's got a point, you know. your father must’ve been very proud to hear of your first masturbation moment.” emil flushed a deep red that might’ve looked flattering on his beautiful elder brother but just made him out to be an irritated red-and-white crayon. “LEON!” he cried out in embarrassment. if one deigned to look carefully, the blank canvas that was leon's face was threatening to crack and emil's blush was lightening to a pretty pink that complimented him.

from a distance, they looked pretty ridiculous and that's exactly what alfred saw as he ran in their direction. “emil, bro, you look like shit! berwald totally messed me up yesterday too! what is with you scandinavians, huh?” leon hid a snicker as the icelandic boy's blush drained and his mouth tightened. “hello to you too, alfred.” leon favoured him with a simple nod as emil muttered out basic pleasantries through gritted teeth. “leon, dude! looking great! loosen up though pal, don't be like yao. he's a bitter old man.” this man seemed to be the fucking sun. nobody had ever told leon that the sun's manner of speaking was definitely something he could vibe with if it involved yao. oh, wait until he told mei about this encounter.

“hey, you guys see matthias? he snatched my glasses and took off running, that little bitch!” alfred shook in mock anger. it took a couple blinks for emil to realise his glasses were, indeed, absent on his face. he looked pretty good without them actually. wait, what? “no, we haven’t seen matthias. though that sounds like a tale indeed,” leon snickered. the blond laughed cheerily and emil took the time to observe how he threw his entire head back and how his chest shook with heavy laughter and how the sun seemed to highlight the tight crinkles of his eyes and give his honey hair— what?

since when had he began to notice alfred f. jones in such a detailed manner? only yesterday he was scolding him for pestering him over that disgusting fast food restaurant. why was today so different? oblivious to his inner turmoil, leon and alfred began comparing their older brothers. “yao is so bitchy sometimes, i swear it's like—“ “—he's on his man period! i know, iggy gets like that too and then he complains he's studying so hard and i'm messing up his work and—“ “—‘back in my day, we would do 34 subjects and never make a fuss and—‘“ “oh my god dude, you GET me!”

“you both could be the twins.” emil felt the need to interject. an uncomfortable feeling was settling in his gut as he finally noticed how, in midst of their shared rant, the two were holding hands. “the twins? which twins?” leon cocked an eyebrow and he flushed at his broken english coming out once more. the american laughed it off and patted them on the back, saying he had to find matthias and “kick his ass!” which left the white-haired boy alone with a very suspicious leon. “emil, are you good?” a hot flush overcame his features once more and he stammered out a poor excuse until the hong kongese boy chuckled merrily and mercifully changed the flow of conversation. somewhere between their debate regarding winged pigs and a little family bemoaning was when they began to walk back to the school buildings. and it was with no shame that leon abruptly went “alfred, huh? yeah, he's pretty cute.” leaving a burning emil in his wake.

lukas had been grumpily manoeuvring his way through the usual student hustle when he noticed his little brother, slack-jawed and sporting an ugly red blush. “snow white, be a dear and move to the side. you’re holding everyone up.” he wasn’t really but the norwegian wanted an excuse to talk to his brother. frowning, emil obeyed, hovering near a row of conveniently placed lockers. “penny for your thoughts?” he offered a phrase he picked up from arthur. “you sound like that old englishman.” the younger scorned. “it's really none of your concern, i can handle my own.” he continued. lukas snorted. “whatever you say, baby brother.” a vicious wince from emil was his only response before he stormed into the crowd, fighting with the blush that seemed to colour him permanently. lukas personally hoped he won; red was definitely not his colour.

and with that admittedly deep thought, he made his way to his next class, idly wondering if it was worth coming into school today. so far, he'd encountered a deadly duo and his cute younger brother and lukas was ready to crawl into bed. ‘at least it can’t get any more tiring than it already is, right?’ he thought.

aha, if only the universe liked lukas enough to grant him that simple right.


	3. IT WILL BE TOUGH ( TO IMPRESS LUKAS )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATTHIAS I FUCKING LOVE YOU  
uhhhhhh i PROMISE ITS GONNA END UP HONGICE ITS JUST . FEELINGS R COMPLICATED OK

“say, ber. do i look good?” matthias anxiously peered into his full length mirror. his brother gave him an unimpressed stare before nodding slightly. “aw, come on! you need to hype me up! i know you got it in you!” the rowdy blond broke away from his reflection with a laugh. berwald sighed. they'd been at this for at least two hours and matthias showed no sign of stopping anytime soon. he gazed questioningly at the suit his brother was nervously fiddling with. “why am i doing this, you ask? well . . . i want to take lukas on a date. and he NEEDS to say yes. so i'm dressing up!” 

the swedish boy sighed once again. his brother was truly remarkable in the most infuriating of ways. he prayed for lukas bondevik's sanity. “he's so pretty and smart and . . . honestly? you wanna know something?” berwald shook his head, putting on his best ‘did i ask’ face ( which wasn’t quite dissimilar to his usual monotone expression ). he was ignored and the dane continued on. “i really wonder what he's doing right now!” matthias exclaimed with too much passion than really necessary.

lukas was in the midst of recovering from his day on hell. the remainder of the day had been surprisingly tame after the eventful ( and unwelcome ) morning he'd had but classes had severely drained him and arthur blew up a ‘potion’ after school, causing their merry magic trio to be kicked out. vladimir had laughed it off but the norwegian boy was beyond exhausted at that point and remained stubbornly silent the entire walk home. he arrived home to find his adorable younger brother asleep on the couch — how is it possible to fall asleep this quickly? — and after dutifully covering emil with a blanket like a good elder brother should, he entered his room and screamed into a pillow.

‘this is fun. i should do this all the time.’ somehow even his thoughts felt muffled as he repeatedly dove face first into the pillow ( lukas tried his best to do it gently so emil would not be awoken ). he was just beginning to reluctantly cease his newfound coping mechanism when the doorbell rang. loudly. emil's startled shriek shook the house to its very foundations which in turn set off the family dog who began barking ferociously. “what the fuck.” lukas deadpanned, listening to emil's shouts of “ZELDA NO GIRL DON'T—“ echo around their home. “i absolutely hate it here.” he declared to nobody in particular. soon, emil's shouts quietened down and lukas finally decided to venture downstairs.

he immediately regretted it when he saw his blushing younger brother cutely stammering in front of a one alfred freedom jones, who was hovering on their doorstep. “luke! dude! hey bro, matthias wants to take you out!” the american yelled past emil. lukas observed that his little brother turned an even more interesting shade of red as alfred innocently rested his hands on emil's shoulders to look past him. ‘so that's why he's been acting odd. how disappointing, alfred isn't as cute as leon. though i suppose i should support him.’ too caught up in his own internal monologue, he missed how the icelandic boy murmured a whole paragraph of nonsensical topics and how alfred kindly entertained him. 

“so um, lukey boy! what do you say?!” alfred yelled excitedly, successfully snapping lukas out of his stupor. emil blinked rapidly, disappointed, as the american refocused on his elder brother. lukas scowled briefly and then shook his head. “tell markus i said no.” he dismissed immediately, turning to disembark up the stairs and continue his pity-scream fest. “his name is matthias!” emil yelled after him. alfred chuckled at the siblings' interaction. “well, i'll be going now—“ 

“—actually, do you have a minute? i have to ask you something...” emil trailed off, a blush decorating his cheeks. the blond blinked solidly before nodding. “yeah, sure dude!” he answered. the icelandic boy cleared his throat, the corners of his lips turning up. “great, let's go.” he daringly reached for alfred's hand ( ignoring his burning ears ) and clasped it tight before running down the street. high above, from his spectacular window seat, lukas snorted. “kiku's manga is coming to life.” he sighed. “what's next, a harem?” he wondered in afterthought.

matthias was frowning. there was a proper frown on matthias' face and it was unnerving. berwald swore that his elder brother had promised to never frown again after hearing it gave you wrinkles ( he chose to ignore that smiling was said to do the same thing ). “are you . . . okay?” he asked hesitantly. the dane broke away from the phone, frowning. “alfred told me that lukas said no. why did he say no?! i even sent him a picture of my outfit. i look so hot! gilbert and alfred said so! you said so!” — ‘no i didn't.’ berwald mentally interrupted him. — “but he left me on read!” matthias wailed, shoving his phone in his younger brother's face. sure enough, there was lukas' contact, his name drowning in a horrendous amount of hearts. beneath the contact was a short conversation between his brother and the norwegian boy. very, very short. one-sided too. so really, it wasn’t much of a conversation. it just looked like matthias was talking to a brick wall.

“HE DIDN'T EVEN RESPOND?!” he shrieked into a pillow. berwald sighed for the 20th time that day. “he must be tough to impress.” he offered. matthias sobs quietened to sniffles. 

“i'll do it, ber! if it's the last thing i'll do, it'll be this! i'll be the first person to impress lukas bondevik. and then he'll be my boyfriend!” matthias heroically declared, before running out of the room.

personally, berwald just thought alfred was a horrible influence.


End file.
